Tuğba Akyılmaz/JINHA

SHENGAL–35-year-old A.S., who escaped from Daesh captivity a month ago, said that there are thousands of women still in Daesh captivity. She called for the immediate rescue of captive women.

A.S. was among over 7,000 women abducted by Daesh in the August 3, 2014 attack on the Êzidî city of Shengal, Iraq. As the first anniversary of the attack approaches, thousands of women are still in Daesh hands.

A.S. managed to escape with her three children about a month ago. She has now moved to the Êzidî tent city in the harsh mountains of Shengal, where she is struggling to survive. A.S. said there must be an immediate effort to save the thousands of women who are still in Daesh captivity.

A.S. comes from the village of Koço, an Êzidî village in a largely Muslim area. When Daesh came to her village, it initially seemed possible for them to raise the white flag and be spared."They came to our elder, our village headman, and said, 'don't leave your homes; around mid-afternoon we will come drink a coffee [with you],'" said A.S. That day, a Daesh member called Abu Hamza paid a visit tothe village headman.

"He said, 'Go back to work; we won't do anything to you. Be at ease in your village. In a few days, we'll go to Shengal. Then, you can go to Shengal too. For now, don't leave your village,'" she said. Then, Daesh changed their offer; the village had to convert to Islam by Monday. "On Monday our village headman talked to them and said, 'Look, everyone around us is Muslim and until now nothing has happened. Let's live according to our religion and you live according to yours.'"

Daesh finally reported that the Êzidîs had been "forgiven" and could keep their religion. The headman offered to give their valuables to Daesh in exchange for being able to stay in the village and being allowed contact with other Êzidîs.

"They said they'd let us know in three days. Three days passed, but they didn't come," she said. Villagers called the commanders, who said they would soon be coming to take them to Shengal. Then one day, we were just about to eat lunch when suddenly they were all around the village." The Daesh forces came with top officials, big rigs, dochka heavy machine guns and enough forces to position several at every house into the village.

Daesh collected the villagers' identity cards and ordered them into the village school."They spread out a blanket and said to put all our money and gold on it. They said they'd search us and cut off the hands of anyone they found [money] on. Then they said to leave our phones," she said. The Daesh gang members ordered the women to the top floor of the school.

"First they took away the men; we still don't know what happened to them. Then they put the women and children in cars and took us to Shengal. We thought they'd take us to the mountain and leave us there," she said. When they arrived at Shengal, Daesh separated out the teenage boys and girls, sending the girls to Mosul and the boys to Tel Afer. This left the older women and those with children. The next day, the older women were taken away. A.S. and the other remaining women were taken and imprisoned in a school in Tel Afer. They remained there for 20 days.

"The conditions there were really bad. The children were nearly dying. Every day they came and tried to take us out, but we made it clear that we wouldn't go anywhere unless they told uswhat they did with the others," she said. Finally, the Daesh members drove them out of the school with bats, forcing them into cars and placed them in homes in the two villages of Kesipmihrap and Kizilqiro, near Til Afer. A.S. and the others remained there for three months.

"Then they told us, 'we sold you to Syria,'" she said. A.S. was brought with 400 or 500 other women to Raqqa. The women were distributed from there to cities like Homs, Al-Shaddadeh and Al-Hol. "There's no city in Syria where Êzidî women weren't sold," said A.S. A.S. was brought to the Sheddad region, where she was held along with 40 Jewish women who had been brought from a Syrian village. Finally, she was sold with 40 others to a manwith a dochka manufacturing center.When the man who had bought her died in a bombardment, she was sold to his cousin.

"The man said that if I could prove I had memorized the Qur'an, he would let me go," said A.S. "He said 'if you do what I say, there will be no problem; if you don't, I'll sell you." A.S. studied the Qur'an, memorized it and was given partial freedom.

"They didn't let me go completely, but I could walk around in the market," she said. "Once I started being able to walk in the market, I was able to reach my family in Duhok from an Internet café. They arranged a car for me and I went to the place they said. Since I had a veil on, I didn't draw much attention."

A.S. was able to take two of her children with her, but her oldest son is still in Daesh' hands. He had been constantly forced to take Daesh "religion" lessons. When she last saw him, he told her, "They're taking me to the front; my name is Abu Jasim now." She says he is now being forced to fight in the Tel Abyad area.

"Recently, they've become much weaker and fallen back; they don't have their old strength," she said. Most recently, the forces in Sheddat had all headed to Hassakah, but they returned, saying, "the PKK is there; we couldn't succeed."A.S. said it was urgent that there be an effort to save the women still in Daesh's hands, as most don't have the opportunity she had.

"Many Êzidî women don't know how to read and write. Since they don't know Arabic, it's hard for them to find an escape route. They can't get in touch with their families, because they don't know their numbers," she said. "Listen to the women's voices. Save them."

(zd/mg/cm)